God bless Andy Cochran, the meister of the Counterterrorism blog, and one of a hardy band of serious people who refuse to be gulled by the wishful thinking of the Intelligence Community and their accomplices in the academy and the dying mainsteam press. He looks at recent events in Iraq and goes straight to the bottom line: “Captures in Iraq in recent days highlight the continued prevalence of foreign fighters and funding for Al Qaeda and other terrorists from Iraq’s “neighbors” in the Muslim world.” He’s talking about
a suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq emir in Baghdad, three “suspected foreign terrorist facilitators” in operations near Samarra, and eight more in “a foreign fighter safe house” west of Mahmudiyah. DoD announced on February 25 that Iraqi Ninewa Special Weapons and Tactics Team arrested “a suspected member of a foreign fighter smuggling network” who is “believed to be part of a network facilitating the movement of foreign fighters, arms and money into Iraq” that support insurgent attacks targeting Iraqi civilians and Iraqi Security Forces. And another raid in Mosul led to the discovery of “a large amount of Egyptian and Syrian money and false passports and identification cards.” Last week, Iraqi police captured Issa Abdul-Razzaq Ahmed, who had traveled to neighbouring countries, especially Syria and the UAE, to collect funds for militant operations in Iraq. Ahmed was one of the most wanted Al Qaeda-connected terrorists in Iraq.
And Andy draws the proper conclusion: don’t be taken in by the Saudis’ vaunted “Sunni strategy.” Some of those foreign fighters are getting Saudi support, as well as from the Sunni Gulf states who lavish money on the terrorists in the foolish hope that the bad guys will forever stay away from their casinos, brothels and upscale restaurants and hotels. We can’t simultaneously support Sunni terrorists (‘cause the Saudis told us so) in Lebanon, while fighting them in Iraq and Afghanistan. We’re just not tricky enough for that.
Meanwhile, CNN tells us that the head of Qods Force operations, General Mohsen Chirazy (no doubt it’s “Shirazi,” meaning he comes from Shiraz), is still in American custody. It’s very good news.
Brig. Gen. Mohsen Chirazi, said to be the third-ranking officer in the Iranian Quds Force, was arrested in late December during a raid at the home of a man connected to the leader of the top Shiite party in Iraq with deep ties to the Iranian government, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, according to U.S. officials.
The Quds Force is a paramilitary arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and has helped direct attacks on Iraqi and U.S. forces inside Iraq, President Bush, Defense Secretary Gates and other senior military leaders have said.
I hope General Shirazi is explaining all the details of his job to our interviewers. He undoubtedly knows a lot about Iran’s international reign of terror, from Iraq to Yemen, from Europe to South America. He might even help us track down Imadh Mughniyah, the operational chief of Hezbollah, who was last noted at a confab in Tehran with Ramadan Shalah (head of Islamic Jihad) and Moqtada al Sadr, the boy wonder of Iraqi radical Shi’ism.
Perhaps Secretary Rice can explain to us, slowly and clearly, why we should be negotiating with these bastards instead of supporting regime change in Tehran? Those lucky enough to escape their clutches–such as Ardeshir Dolat–understand that you can only lose by negotiating with terrorists.
Have a look at these excellent thoughts from Ardeshir Dolat. He knows. Condi should have him over for tea.
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